Welfare Nation: Americans’ Income Tumbled In January Excluding Government Handouts

Thanks to government handouts starting to wash across the nation, analysts expected personal incomes to explode higher in January (and spending to rise after two declining months) and they were right. Personal incomes rose 10.0% MoM (better than the +9.5% expected) while spending rose 2.4% MoM (slightly worse than the +2.5% expected)….

Source: Bloomberg

Government workers wages and salaries were steady at -2.4% YoY while private workers saw wages and salaries accelerate from +1.8% YoY to +2.2% YoY…

On a year-over-year basis, spending remains down marginally (-0.4%) while incomes are up a stunning 13.1% YoY…

Source: Bloomberg

Perhaps most shocking is the fact that government transfer payments accounted for more than 100% of the total income gain in January

Total Personal Income rose $1.955TN from $19.499TN to $21.454TN…

BUT…

Current Transfer receipts rose $1.977TN from $3.804TN to $5.781TN…

Which means personal income excluding govt transfers declined by $22.3BN from $15.696TN to $15.673TN

Of course, this transfer payment sent the savings rate soaring from 13.4% to 20.5%…

Imagine what that income chart will look like after Biden’s $1400 checks go out?